The fight to connect the villages of South East Cambridgeshire to ‘superfast broadband’ has taken a leap forward.

Following a campaign by Connecting Cambridgeshire, the villages of West Wickham, Carlton, Little Wilbraham, Reach and Prickwillow have finally seen the service rolled out this year.

At current estimates South East Cambridgeshire will have 95 percent coverage by the end of 2017.

To mark the progress of the campaign South East Cambridgeshire MP Lucy Frazer, met representatives from Connecting Cambridgeshire, BT Broadband, local stakeholders and the Minister For Digital and Culture, Matt Hancock, on Thursday.

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She said: “I am extremely grateful to the Minister and representatives from Connecting Cambridgeshire and BT for coming together today and taking the time to meet with and listen to local representatives.

“Today is a celebration of what has been achieve to date but it is also a fact gathering opportunity with regards to what still needs to be done.

“The job is not over yet but what today’s meeting highlights is that by working together we can make significant progress.”

When the Connecting Cambridgeshire project began in 2012 just 47 per cent of South East Cambridgeshire had access to superfast broadband.

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The first phase of the roll-out was completed in January 2016, the second phase will extend coverage until this summer and planning is underway for a third phase to reach more challenging areas.

Programme director for Connecting Cambridgeshire Noelle Godfrey, said: “It’s great to hear how communities are benefiting from getting superfast broadband and our broadband champions have played a vital role in keeping residents informed about the progress of roll-out and helping to highlight connection problems.

We know how important it is for households and businesses to have fast, reliable Internet connections and we’re working hard to fill the gaps.

“We are pleased that we’re on track to reach over 95 per cent of the county with high speed fibre by the end of this year and we’re planning further phases of the roll-out aiming for an ambitious target of more than 99 per cent coverage by 2020.”